Energy Outreach Colorado, a Denver-based organization that advocates for energy affordability, reports that it has now upgraded the energy efficiency of 1,000 homes in 40 counties.

“This past year, we received over 150,000 calls from people seeking urgent assistance with their past-due energy bills,” executive director Jennifer Gremmert wrote in the organization’s 2019 report. “We know that there is much more work that needs to be done to ensure that there is equity for those struggling to afford some their most basic human needs.”

The Colorado’s Affordable Residential Energy, or CARE, program offers weatherization to low-income households in rural areas. It launched in 2015 and funds the service with the help of private donors and utilities.

CARE’s application for assistance notes that households may be eligible for LEDs, EnergyStar refrigerators, air sealing, insulation, furnace replacement and replacement shower heads, among other features.

The Colorado Energy Office also offers automatic weatherization assistance to households receiving a variety of federal assistance, and whose incomes do not exceed $40,840 for a family of three.

The office estimates that nearly three in 10 Colorado households pay more than 4% of their incomes on energy. Of those, 11% are “energy impoverished, paying more than 10% of household income on utility bills.”